Over the last few years, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and agency partner Broken Heart Love Affair (BHLA) have been attempting to reframe what a museum could be, moving from a place of objects to a place of ideas.

Since partnering in 2021, the agency has helped the museum shift its messaging to being educational as well as evocative. In 2022, the ROM’s brand platform, “ROM Immortal,” aimed to modernize the museum and its next campaign, “Immortal,” evolved that messaging. The ROM’s more recent spot, the three-minute “Opera,” was a finalist at the 2025 Cannes Lions.

With its latest Sharks exhibit, the ROM is pivoting from what we see to how we feel, inviting people to confront something primal: fear itself. In collaboration with BHLA, production partner Lifelong Crush and media partner Cairns Oneil, the ROM’s “Dive Deeper” campaign aims to drive awareness and attendance by challenging decades of fear-driven portrayals in pop culture (see: Jaws). Instead, visitors are encouraged to rediscover sharks as essential and deeply misunderstood creatures.

The integrated campaign brings surprising shark facts to life across digital, social, Spotify and out-of-home platforms throughout the Greater Toronto Area.

Carly Miller, VP strategy for the ROM, tells strategy that instead of promoting an “exhibition about sharks,” the campaign sought to shift the narratives around these misunderstood creatures, transforming them from monsters to marvels.

“As Canada’s largest museum, ROM’s mission is to bring art, culture and nature to life,” Miller says. “To inspire understanding of our world and our place within it. The challenge is relevance: how do we make that mission feel urgent and alive for modern audiences who scroll faster than they stop to wonder. Sharks met that challenge by showing that even the most ancient creatures can still surprise us, moving people from fear to fascination and from curiosity to care.”

“Each new exhibit builds on a shared belief: art, nature and culture all have the power to move you deeply,” Miller says. “Sharks continues that shift from knowledge to feeling, from artifacts to worlds of wonder. We live in a fascination-fear paradox with sharks. We’re drawn to them, yet conditioned to fear them. Our insight was simple but powerful: when fear becomes fascination, compassion follows. So, we invited audiences to dive deeper into their world. Not as prey or predator but as admirers. Seeing sharks for what they truly are: ancient, intelligent, extraordinary.”

The ROM’s chief marketing officer, Sally Tindal, agreed, adding that few animals have captured the human imagination quite like sharks. “These astonishing creatures have been around longer than dinosaurs, which makes it all the more alarming that they now face urgent threats to their survival,” Tindal says. “This exhibition will not only enthrall visitors, it will dispel some of the common misconceptions and spark a deeper understanding and appreciation for this fascinating species.”

The exhibit is open until March 22, 2026.